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Full-Text Articles in Paleobiology

Identifying Dietary And Migratory Patterns Of Illinois Woolly Mammoth Populations Using Isotope Analysis Of Carbon, Oxygen, And Strontium, Matthew Harrington, Chris Widga, Al Wanamaker, Doug Walker Jun 2019

Identifying Dietary And Migratory Patterns Of Illinois Woolly Mammoth Populations Using Isotope Analysis Of Carbon, Oxygen, And Strontium, Matthew Harrington, Chris Widga, Al Wanamaker, Doug Walker

Celebration of Learning

The extinct woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) ranged from Alaska to the Northeastern Seaboard throughout the Late Pleistocene (100-10 Ka). Although it is recognized that woolly mammoths coincided with and lived in a region heavily influenced by glacial ice sheets, little is known about their dietary or migratory behavior. This study classifies and provides insight into the diet and mobility of Midwestern mammoths by analyzing stable isotopes of carbon, oxygen, and strontium preserved in the tooth enamel of these extinct elephantids. A woolly mammoth tooth from Moline, IL, was bulk-sampled and micromilled to extract the aforementioned isotopes from the …


Genetic Sequencing For Measuring Biodiversity In Recent And Ancient Marine Sediments, Lauren Judge May 2019

Genetic Sequencing For Measuring Biodiversity In Recent And Ancient Marine Sediments, Lauren Judge

Celebration of Learning

Taxonomic biodiversity, measured by counting the number of species present in a given area, is the most common method of capturing ecosystem biodiversity in recent and ancient environments. While this method is widely accepted, it is limited by poor preservation and identification of many individuals, making it impossible to include every species within an ecosystem and resulting in the loss of some diversity information. To address this issue, we measured the genetic biodiversity (in which species are determined based on sequencing of their DNA) of shallow marine ecosystems by extracting and sequencing the 18S ribosomal gene from bulk carbonate sediment …


Are The Oxygen Isotope Values Of The Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway Different From The Open Ocean?, Camille H. Dwyer, Corinne Myers, Viorel Atudorei Nov 2018

Are The Oxygen Isotope Values Of The Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway Different From The Open Ocean?, Camille H. Dwyer, Corinne Myers, Viorel Atudorei

Shared Knowledge Conference

The Western Interior Seaway (WIS) was a North American epicontinental sea that was connected to the open ocean through the passage of the northern Boreal Sea and the southern Tethys Sea from the early Albian (~113 million years ago) to the early Paleogene (~65 million years ago). The WIS began to recced and lost its connection to the southern Tethys Sea in the late Campanian (~72 million years ago). In the early Paleogene, the WIS dried up completely. The oxygen isotopic composition (δ18O) of benthic bivalves was measured from the upper Campanian and lower Maastrichtian (75 million years ago to …


Investigation Of Omnivorous Trophic Position In The Drilling Gastropod, Urosalpinx Cinerea, Using Stable Isotope Analysis, Molly E. Karnes, Michelle M. Casey Apr 2018

Investigation Of Omnivorous Trophic Position In The Drilling Gastropod, Urosalpinx Cinerea, Using Stable Isotope Analysis, Molly E. Karnes, Michelle M. Casey

Scholars Week

Drill-holes found in the fossil record are an important tool to study ecological patterns of the past. It is therefore important to gain a better understanding of the role of extant drilling snails in modern ecosystems. Although traditionally considered a predator, trophic position of 3.0, specimens of the muricid Urosalpinx cinerea from Long Island Sound revealed trophic positions between 2.3 and 2.5, suggestive of an omnivorous diet. This study addresses the generality of this result by examining a U. cinerea population from Wilmington, North Carolina. Preliminary whole body, soft tissue stable isotope analysis of nitrogen and carbon was conducted on …


Time, Money, And Melting Ice: Proposal For A Coopertive Study Of The World’S Cave Ice In A Race Against Climate Change, George Veni, Lewis Land, Aurel Perşoiu Aug 2014

Time, Money, And Melting Ice: Proposal For A Coopertive Study Of The World’S Cave Ice In A Race Against Climate Change, George Veni, Lewis Land, Aurel Perşoiu

The International Workshop on Ice Caves

Climate change is a global phenomenon that is melting and threatening to melt ice deposits in many of the world’s ice caves. The National Cave and Karst Research Institute of the USA is concerned that major and important paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental records stored in cave ice will soon be lost, and is proposing an international collaborative effort to overcome funding and logistical challenges to sample and analyze at least a representative collection of ice from several regions before further melting occurs.


Ice Caves On Extraterrestrial Bodies: What Are The Prospects For Speleogenesis And Detection?, Penelope J. Boston Aug 2014

Ice Caves On Extraterrestrial Bodies: What Are The Prospects For Speleogenesis And Detection?, Penelope J. Boston

The International Workshop on Ice Caves

Potential mechanisms for creating cavities in icy extraterrestrial bodies have been tentatively explored by several authors. On one hand we have examples of mechanisms that create caves in water ice here on Earth. In addition, there may be unique mechanisms on other Solar System objects that do not occur on Earth but might produce cavities, e.g. sublimation of comets upon perihelion passage. The methods of detecting such cavities depend upon the nature of the icy body in question, the potential for orbital or landed missions to visit those bodies in the future, and remote or landed methods for detecting the …


Postglacial Faunal Records From Cave Deposits In Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada, Christopher N. Jass, Greg Horne, Dave Critchley Nov 2013

Postglacial Faunal Records From Cave Deposits In Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada, Christopher N. Jass, Greg Horne, Dave Critchley

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

In 2009, we initiated an on-going, long term research project that focuses on exploration of fossil-bearing cave deposits in Jasper National Park. Specifically, we were interested in understanding patterns of mammalian re-colonization of mountainous regions following late Pleistocene deglaciation. Our work has focused on the identification of fossil-bearing cave deposits, excavation and sampling of those deposits, and radiocarbon dating of recovered remains. Examined sites have at least an age of 9600 years BP. Research at four cave sites, located in relatively close proximity to one another, is contributing to an improved understanding of the late Quaternary record of Jasper National …